ABSTRACT
Modern media and rapid communication technologies have made possible a language of transnational horror predicated neither on the Hollywood version of Gothic, nor on a single horror tradition from any given region, but instead on the flow of fear along a network of edges and hubs, in which elements of terror are continually received, shaped, and transmitted in myriad patterns and multicultural contexts. At the heart of this new fractal of horror are digital technologies such as digital cameras, computers, and the Internet, all of which have facilitated the regional creation and transnational distribution of cutting-edge horror cinema. 1 Ghost stories, in particular those involving angry and sorrowful spirits that return from a cursed past to haunt the present through modern technology, are not only the most popular subgenre of horror film, but also the most frequently and fluidly disseminated across cultures. One example would be the Thai horror film Shutter (2004), in which the ghost of a wronged woman seeks revenge against her abuser by haunting his camera. After its release in Thailand, the regional film quickly gained a devoted international following through official and bootleg DVD sales, video on demand rentals, as well as Internet file sharing. Its seemingly universal popularity spawned a multitude of remakes, including the Tamil film Sivi (2007), the Hindi film Click (2010), and the American film Shutter (2008), which was directed by Japan’s Masayuki Ochiai. Through remakes and transformations, regional tales of vengeful ghosts and cursed pasts are culturally adapted, internationally disseminated, and instantaneously transmitted into our homes through digital devices and networks such as the Internet. The resulting transnational and transmedial matrix of fear blurs the boundaries between original and remake, foreign and native, sender and receiver, and creates a web of postmodern horror mediated by digital technology, one in which distant ghosts and curses might become our own. 2
